Innocent Eyes
by Friendly Reaper
Summary: A group of exorcists is sent on a mission to the Kingdom of Fiore to search for an Innocence and end up having to group with the members of one of the most troublesome magic guilds of the country: Fairy Tail. Co-authored with hysterical writer;
1. The Kingdom of Flowers

**CHAPTER 1**

 _ **The Kingdom of Flowers**_

It was a very hot and sunny morning in the city of Magnolia, the kind of morning that make people dressed in black melt in the streets, just like the four young exorcists that had just arrived in the city's train station. The only one not dressed in black was the Inspector traveling with them, but he couldn't care less for the weather.

"Why is so hot in here…?" Lavi moaned in agony.

"We should head to the inn now, so we all can change into some fresher clothes." Lenalee stated, already walking down the train station. Allen and Link were right behind her, the first too tired to comment anything or even shoo away the golden golem sitting on his head. "You should be happy that we aren't going to stay too long in here, Lavi."

"Yeah… I hope tomorrow this weather gets more reasonable…" he commented. "Or else I will burn in this clothes."

"Don't be so dramatic, Lavi." Allen finally said, Timcanpy had gently started to flap his wings and tail to refresh him.

"Beansprout, I'm ginger, the sun hates ginger people, it tries to fry them alive!" Lavi said catching Allen's hand and putting in his own head. "Do you feel it? My head is on fire, Beansprout!"

"It's _Allen_! And you know what?" Allen said taking his hand away from the other boy's head. "I used to be ginger before my hair turned white, and the sun is not trying to kill me for this."

The stunned silence that followed that comment was only broken by the sound of Inspector Link scribbling furiously in his notebook. When he finally stopped, and put down his notebook, Lenalee decided to break the ice:

"My brother told me that dark colors tend to absorb more sunlight rays, considering our uniforms, that's probably why we are feeling so hot now…"

"Baby, I'm always hot." Lavi said. "And these uniforms have nothing to do with it."

"Don't make me shut you up." Kanda groaned.

"And how do you plan on doing that, _Yuu-chan_." Lavi teased.

Kanda instantly grabbed the hilt of his sword and advanced on Lavi who hid behind Allen, giggling, to avoid a slow and painful death.

"Move, Beansprout!"

"Don't know who you are talking to, BaKanda, sorry." Allen said smirking.

"Do you want to die too?"

"Oh, my bad." Allen started. "I forgot you don't have enough brain cells to actually remember someone's name. Were you talking to me?"

"Listen here you…"

"Boys, _please_ …" Lenalee interrupted, sighing and rolling her eyes. "Let's just go, ok? If we stay in the sun for more time we will end up with sunburns."

"Walker, you, especially, should listen to Miss Lee." Link reprimanded.

"Okay, _mom._ " Allen and Lavi said.

Kanda gave one last glare to both before proceeding to walk alone ahead of the group.

"Were you really ginger, Beansprout?" Lavi whispered to Allen after some seconds

"It's Allen!" Allen whispered back. "And yes, I was."

* * *

Later that day, when the five of them had already arrived at the inn and had all taken a nice bath and changed their clothes, they reunited in the room they were going to share to discuss the mission and make plans to the days that would follow. Lavi was sprawled on the bottom of one of the two bunk beds in the room, with Lenalee and Allen seated together on the top beds, their legs swinging in the air distracting Timcanpy, while Allen tried teaching her some card tricks. Link was seated on an armchair by the side and Kanda had opted to stay standing near the only window in the room. There was no need for a bed for Link in the moment, so they just left the spare mattress leaned on one of the walls.

"So… Apparently, we are supposed to investigate under cover." Lavi started. "The Finders weren't able to get much information by themselves in this case. The people of this kingdom are very used to magic, so it was especially hard for the Finders to separate common magic occurrences from Innocence influence."

"And the undercover part…?" Allen asked confused.

"Oh, this kingdom and the Vatican do not have the best of the relationships, so is better for us to not attract much attention for ourselves." Lenalee stated. "We are supposed to pass for common mages from a foreign guild."

"This time we are not looking for a specific Innocence, but more concrete information about their presence in Fiore, so we will need to ask permission to a local guild to search their archives and collect information about possible Innocence related occurrences in this kingdom. It will be far easier than ask the villages." Lavi added. "Proper mages will have better information, since they study and use magic as a common base, they will know when something is abnormal, hence Innocence."

"This, of course, doesn't mean we can ignore akuma that may appear along the way." Link remembered. "Exorcists don't come to Fiore very often, so we also have a side mission to clean the border cities of any akuma living there."

"I guess we will need to slip into groups then..." Allen commented. "With my eye, it will be easier to go hunting akuma in the cities, Lavi and Lenalee are better fitted to collect information, and Kanda…"

"What?"

"It would be best if you go alone to other cities to hunt akuma too." Lenalee complemented. "This way, you and Allen will be able to cover a larger area and in less time."

"If we finish this fast, it's ok for me." Kanda informed her. "Being away from the Rabbit and the Beansprout is just a benefit."

"My name is _Allen._ "

"Love you too, _Yuu._ " Lavi said sarcastically.

"Now that everything is settled, we have the rest of the day to go sightseeing!" Lenalee suggested excitedly.

"I saw a bookstore near here so I'm going there to get some maps for us and search more about the local mage guilds." Lavi said, getting up from his bed and heading to the door with his coat in hands. "Besides, I have some work Bookman passed me to finish…"

"I'll grab something to eat… I'm starving!" Allen said, or jumping out of the upper bunk bed and joining Link, who was already standing by the door. "I saw a nice cakeshop down the street, if you guys need me, I will be there."

"I'll go with you, I'm hungry too." Lenalee said. "Kanda?"  
"Patrolling."

With this, the group split up and parted to explore the city of Magnolia, each in their own ways.

* * *

Lavi found a good bookstore quickly.

The place wasn't one of the best he had seen as a Bookman, it didn't even get near the amazing libraries he had visited before, but it would serve his purposes just fine for the time being. He hadn't been kidding about the hot weather and he really didn't want to spend more time than strictly necessary in the sun, and just being able to accomplish that already made him feel satisfied. Besides, there was a cute blue-haired girl searching through the history books in the same aisle as he, so things were actually looking up for him.

He could ask for informations from the owner, who was comfortably sitting in the counter reading a large book, but the girl was right there, and he thought this was the perfect opportunity to approach her without sounding dumb or weird. He noticed she was reading a book in german, and rapidly though of an excuse to talk to her.

"[Excuse me…]" He said in his best german.

The girl, who was really engrossed in her book, looked startled for a second before realizing who had talked to her.

"[Uh, I'm kind of new in the country and was having some difficulties in looking for some good maps here…]" He proceeds. "[ I saw you reading this book and thought that maybe you could help me. I'm very lost here and my friend who knows english ditched me for some cakes…]"

"[Oh, I'm sorry for that. But I guess I can actually help.]" She wasn't as good as he, but good nonetheless. "[ You said you needed some maps, right?]"

"[Yes, thank you!]" Lavi said. "[ You don't know the help you are giving me!]"

"[Here, come with me.]"

Suddenly, this city didn't look so bad to him anymore.

* * *

Not even an hour had passed, and Kanda had already decided that he hated Magnolia. The city just didn't click with him. It was unnecessary hot, and his long Exorcist coat was only making it worse. He was seriously regretting not having left it in the inn like the Beansprout and Lenalee, who were probably stuffing themselves with cakes right now. Not that he liked cake, he _hated_ sweet thing as much as he hated the Beansprout, but the two of them probably weren't walking in the sun right now.

One of the things that bothered him the most in the city was the fact that besides the hellish weather, the people here seemed weirder than he was used to. From weird hair colors to strange and inappropriate clothes, like the woman wearing blue winter clothes following a naked(?) guy. And a woman with a hair as white as snow, just like the Beansprout. Anything even remotely associated with that guy was disgusting for him.

He would not even mention the flying cats. That was… Too much for him. Honestly speaking, Kanda just wanted to get out of this weird country as fast as possible. Speaking about weird things, just then entering the city, he saw a woman with scarlet hair pushing a large hand wagon with the biggest amount of luggage he had ever seen.

He didn't even get impressed this time.

No wonder the Vatican didn't keep a good relationship with that country. They didn't like things out of the "normal". Exorcists were only approved because they were a necessity, but the weird things he saw in this first day here... Thinking liking this, being hated by the Vatican was a very good attribute for Kanda.

* * *

Erza Scarlet looked at her money bag and couldn't help the grin that emerged on her face. What was a seven years old debt of 4.200.000 Jewels for a S Class Mage like her? In less than a week she had already earned more than enough to cover that and live comfortably for at least a month. She wasn't called The Fairies' Queen for nothing.

Pulling her usual large amount of luggage, she headed back to Fairy Hills, back to her 5-in-1 apartment. Now that she had a good amount of money, it was time to buy her strawberry cake, the best kind of food ever created.

 _How could she have lived seven years without a slice of a sweet and perfect strawberry cake?_ She asked herself.

After half an hour, she was back on the streets, happily walking towards the city's best cake shop, dreaming about that sweet and wonderful taste and almost drooling in anticipation.

As soon as she opened the door, a wave of nostalgia washed over her. Seven years had passed, and the cake shop had changed with time. Not only it had expanded a little, but it had also more kinds of cake in the showcase. But the only one that mattered, the strawberry one, wasn't there, weirdly. There were also booths by the both sides of the shop and some of them were occupied by happy people eating all kinds of cake and enjoying the chilly temperature that mystically enveloped the shop.

When the shopkeeper, who now had gray hairs in his head, noticed her walking in, his eyes went wide with shock and a big smile appeared on his face. He rapidly passed a big slice of chocolate cake to a blonde man and gave his full attention to her.

"Miss Erza!" He happily exclaimed. She had always been one of his best clients after all. "You... You are really back! I heard people talking in the streets, but-"

"Yeah, we're all back for good." She smiled. "You know why I'm here, don't you?!"

"After all this years, I would never forget." He said.

"Great! I want your best strawberry cake, just like old times."

The man got back to the showcase and went for an empty space between the cakes. Surprise sparkled on his eyes, and then horror covered his face. Erza didn't want to think on what that would mean.

"Oh… Miss Erza, I'm afraid to say that..." The man started, fear had begun to grow in his eyes. "But I'm out of Fantasia Cakes for now. I forgot I sold the last slice just before you entered. And I won't have one until the end of the week, since the city market is out of strawberries."

The smile vanished from Erza's lips in an instant and her face suddenly went dark. She took a deep breath trying to calm herself and leaned on the showcase, her hands gripping the edges of it.

"What did you say?" She said in a low and steady tone.

The poor man squirmed behind the counter, curling into a ball on the ground.

"I-I'm sorry." He squeaked. "I thought you wouldn't come back today!"

"You have known me for years now. I'm the woman who once ordered 49 cakes just for myself, and yet, _you dare say to me that you sell the last strawberry cake knowing I was coming back from a mission…_ " She stated dangerously "Who did you sell it for, you fool man!?"

"T-to the ones o-on that booth o-over there." He pointed to a booth occupied by three people, being one the blonde man from before. "T-the blonde man… h-he buyed tons and tons of my ca-cakes and lots of the other sweets too! The kids with him wanted to try them all…"

She looked in the direction the man pointed and saw a girl with pitch black hair and a boy with silver hair, their table filled with several different slices of cakes. The blonde man the shopkeeper had mentioned, was adding more sweets to their already giant pile of pastries, before sitting down next to the boy. And then, she saw the last slice of her precious strawberry cake one on one their plates in front of the boy.

She didn't think twice before fully turning around, ready to kill:

"Kansou. Heaven's Wheel Armor." Erza chanted with a dark aura emerging from her.

Her clothes changed from white blouse, blue skirt and black boots to an armor that consisted on a top and a pair of boots made of steel, a skirt made of white fabric and more steel and wings with shining feather-shaped blades. She walked toward their targets with two swords in hand and a hundred more floating on a circle in the air.

She saw people flinching and hiding under their tables, squeaking like terrified squirrels, but ignored all of them to focus on those three _fucking bastards_.

"HEY!" She called them.

The blonde man was the first to look, frowning at her and her 102 swords. Then the kids looked, with shining innocence-filled eyes and forks inside their mouths, tilting their heads slightly. Her swords quickly disappeared and her normal clothes come back and she couldn't do anything for some seconds besides stare at the three.

"Huh… Do you need something… Lady?" The blonde man asked, still frowning.

She opened her mouth to say something, but couldn't find the words. The kids… Why… WHY WERE THEY SO CUTE?!

* * *

By the time Lavi finally was satisfied with his purchases, night was already falling in the city and the evening heat was almost completely gone. The girl - who he discovered was called Levy - had already found at least five good maps, being two of them in german for him. He could have found them all alone, but he would never refuse a pretty girl help. Sadly, he was so distracted talking to her while exiting the store, that he walked right into a guy that was passing, dropping all these things in the ground in the process.

"[I'm sorry!]" Lavi said, remembering he shouldn't know english. "[My fault]"

"Can't you look where are you going, dumbass?" Asked a _very_ familiar and irritated voice.

"Don't be rude!" Levy interfered. "He said he was sorry"

"I know what he said!" _Kanda_ retorted. "I was just reaffirming his normal stupidness."

 _Well,_ Lav thought, _this isn't going to end well._

"Oh, you must be the friend that was traveling with him." Levy said. "You shouldn't leave him alone in the city with no knowledge of english."

"What?"

 _At least I had fun_ , Lavi though, _it was a very pleasant evening._

"You leave your german friend alone in the city, to fend for himself." Levy explained to Kanda "You should never leave your friends alone in places where they can't even speak the local language. It's rule number one of traveling!"

The few seconds of silence that followed made Lavi pray that Levy wasn't a violent person. He just braced all his papers and prepared to run, while a devilish smirk started to appear on Kanda's face. And then:

"Did he say he was german or french this time?"

"What?" Poor girl, he was starting to feel really bad now.

"First: He isn't my friend." Kanda stated. "Second: he speaks english perfectly well for a retard."

"Wait, what?" She was getting angry. "You lied to me the whole evening?"

"I'm sorry..." Lavi said dejected. "I just really wanted to talk to you…"

"Oh! Now you know english!?" She was starting to turn red from anger "Look, I don't lie to people, It's not cool, ok."

"I'm sorry." Lavi said again with a sheepish smile. "Not doing again."

"I don't- why- I can't believe it…" She muttered.

Without saying more, Levy just turned and walked away from them. Kanda seeming very pleased with himself.

"I guess now we just head back to the inn…"

"Serves you right, stupid rabbit."

"Vengeful, aren't you, _Yuu-chan._ " Lavi said cheerfully, already leaving the girl rejection behind.

"Just… shut up." Kanda said walking ahead. "Next time you stumble on me I will flail you alive."

"Eh…"


	2. The Fairies' Home

**CHAPTER 2**

 _ **The Fairies' Home**_

The next day, the exorcists and the inspector were waiting patiently in the common hall of the inn for Erza Scarlet to appear. After solving their cake problems with her, Allen, Lenalee and Link had discovered she was a member of an old and famous local guild, called Fairy Tail. She even offered to help them in their "research" presenting the group to the guild master - a senior mage called Makarov - so they could ask for permission to have access to the guild's archive.

Allen, Link and Kanda hadn't even unpacked their bags and already had train tickets bought to start their travel through the borders of the country right after lunch. It was decided in the previous night that if the master of the guild allowed them to use their archives, only Lenalee and Lavi would stay in the city to search through them. Allen and Kanda would be sending them daily reports with the golems, and in case one of them skipped more than one, either Lavi or Lenalee would head to their last location to help. In two weeks, they would meet again in Magnolia and conclude the mission, unless they had a very good lead on a possible Innocence location in the country or a big akuma nest. So, with everything already planned, they just needed to sit by the benches in the common hall of the inn, and wait for Erza to appear.

Lavi took the opportunity to doze off on a couch, since he had passed the whole night studying the maps and other manuscripts while Kanda was now quietly revising the route he had chosen and Lavi's notes. Allen and Lenalee were half sleeping half eating the donuts that Link had bought for himself but was forced to share with them. Timcanpy, in the meantime, seemed to be happy in stealing bites from their hands while they were distracted trying to stay awake enough to eat.

"Oh, I see this little golem of yours, is really a glutton." Said a familiar voice by the inn's entrance.

"Erza-san!" Allen and Lenalee happily exclaimed blinking the sleep away.

Erza engulfed both in a tight bear hug, making the poor kids almost purple for lack of air.

"You're so cute and formal!" She chanted while they suffocated in her strong arms.

Lavi, who had just woken up with the new visitor was torn between laughing his ass off at the scene and falling madly in love with Erza.

"Ma'am, please don't suffocate my charge" Link advised, since they were starting to really turn purple from the lack of air.

After freeing Lenalee and Allen from her killer hug, Erza turned to look at the two other boys in the room.

"You must be the friends that were mentioned to me yesterday, right?"

"Yes, I'm Lavi" Lavi said already holding her hand and kneeling in front of her and kissing her hand. "It's a pleasure to meet you!"

"Oh." Erza said flattered.

"Control yourself, stupid Rabbit!" Kanda reprimanded beating his head with Mugen's sheath.

"Ouch!" Lavi cried. "Have you no heart, _Yuu-chan_?"

"Lavi, don't be that naive" Allen said, now that he and Lenalee could breathe properly again. "And that's Kanda, for you, Erza-san."

"Ah, nice to meet you." Erza said, only to be completely ignored by Kanda, who just looked skeptical at her.

"Well, introductions done, guess we can go now." Lenalee commented, before Erza could say anything else.

* * *

Erza lead them to the outskirts of the city, almost in the rural area. The Exorcists and the Inspector couldn't help the frown in their faces at the sight, but kept following her anyway. Then, a stone road appeared and at the end of it, the guild hall stood, identified by a simple sign that read: _Fairy Tail_.

The building was made of stone and wood with a mill tower in the middle, with an orange flag displaying the same symbol that Erza had tattooed on her arm. The planks of the mill were terribly worn out and so was the colorful sign arch that had the name of the guild written in it, since the letter L was almost falling from it. Logs and barrels were piled up on the garden at the front, while a wood stood behind the building and clothes were spread out on a clothesline at its side.

Lavi could swear he heard chickens clucking somewhere near them.

Definitely not what they expected from a guild that was once Fiore's most powerful and famous.

"Welcome to Fairy Tail!" Erza exclaimed with a huge smile for them.

Kanda, seeing Lenalee's reaction, _tried_ not to laugh. But this place? Really? Erza just frowned and stared at him.

Seeing the tension rising, Lenalee quickly said "Hm… Erza-san, shouldn't we enter the building? It's getting hot in here."

"You're right, let's go!" Erza said lively and started leading them inside.

Inside, although the structure wasn't very impressing either and the guild smelled like sweat, beer and food, it was filled with laughs and conversations. It looked a lot like a _home_ , a very comfortable place, even though it looked like a bar. There were a few mages scattered around the tables and benches in the main hall, drinking, eating or talking and like in the city outside, they were a mess of colorful hairs and short clothes, with one or another wearing something that was totally unacceptable for that weather, like the lady with heavy blue winter clothes.

At the end of the hall, a white-haired woman wearing a pink long dress with white lace trimmings stood behind a counter, rubbing a cloth on a glass. When she saw them, she put the glass down and smiled.

"Morning, Erza" She said warmly. "Looks like you brought some guests with you"

"Ready to see the cutest kids in the world?" Erza asked.

"Show me!" She said clapping her hands excitedly.

Erza grabbed Lenalee and Allen and pushed them to the counter's front for the other woman to see.

"Allen and Lenalee, this is Mirajane Strauss, she is a powerful S Class Mage of our guild." Erza said. "And Mira, those are Allen Walker and Lenalee Lee, the ones I told you about yesterday."

Mirajane, the white-haired lady, widened her eyes in surprise cupping her own cheeks in hands to contain herself.

"Good morning, Mirajane-san!" Allen and Lenalee said bowing to her.

Unable to contain herself and without thinking twice, Mirajane just jumped above the counter and hugged them tightly, pressing both their faces against her chest and almost suffocating them.

"OH MY GOD, YOU ARE SO CUTE!" She chanted happily.

Link, who had stalked after Allen the whole time, panicked with that _indecent_ display of affection between strangers, disturbing Timcanpy, that was peacefully sleeping on his head until that moment.

Meanwhile Lavi was still trying to recompose himself of the giant _STRIKE!_ that seeing Mirajane had caused him. Kanda was just trying to not look as amused as he really was inside, _for the mission_ , he told himself while leaning on a nearby chair and appreciating the funny colors on the Beansprout's face while Link tried to pry him away from the mage.

* * *

"I don't believe you actually burned down that building." Lucy sighed.

Everything was going perfectly well, and for the first time in a while, Lucy was thinking that maybe, just once, they would be able to finish one mission without any problem and end up receiving the full amount of money announced. But she might as well have jinxed them with this kind of thoughts, because from that moment on, everything went downhill, and they got lucky to receive in the end less than a third of the promised payment. She would need another mission soon to be able to pay her rent.

Natsu, who alone had destroyed the city hall and burned part of the mayor's hair, was acting in the perfect opposite of her, with his usual shit-eating grin and calm attitude. He didn't seem fazed by the fact that they were coming back with less than half the money that was expected and this was getting on her nerves. And Happy, who was humming happily above her head, eating something very crunchy and leaving the crumbs fall all over her head, wasn't helping in her already bad mood either.

Lucy sighed again.

"Honestly, why am I with you, really?" She said while trying to clean the crumbs of her hair.

" 'Cause we're a team?" Natsu suggested.

" 'Cause you love us?" Happy said, not bothering to stop munching before talking.

"I won't even answer this. And Happy... GET OUT OF MY HEAD"

The blue cat flied away, a bit surprised and Lucy walked away, leaving them both behind.

"Natsu." He called pouting "I think Lucy is mad at us."

"Don't be silly. She would never be mad at us."

"Are we following her?"

"Nah. We'll meet her at the guild."

* * *

Those boys were impossible, just like everyone else at the guild. Sometimes, like now, Lucy would seriously question her own choice on forming a team with Natsu and Happy.

She sighed for the hundredth time that day and walked inside the guild... Just to be reminded that Natsu and Happy weren't the only crazy ones in Fairy Tail, not by a long shot.

There, above the counter and in front of the whole guild, were Mirajane and Erza, strangulating two poor kids with a killer hug. The little she could see of their faces was turning an unhealthy shade of purple because of the lack of air. By their side, a short man with long braided blonde hair was trying to separate them.

"Miss Erza!" He was saying exasperated. "This is not a lady's proper behavior!"

Lucy felt sorry for that guy, but then Levy entered the hall alongside Gajeel and she decided to go talk with her friend instead.

"Oh. Hey Lucy! It's good to have you back!" The small girl said and went to hug her friend. "How was the mission this time? Did the guys give too much work?"

"You can't even imagine." Lucy sighed "Can you believe Natsu burned down the City Hall and set the mayor's hair on fire?! And worse! HE DOESN'T EVEN CARE ABOUT IT! Because of him, now I'll have to do a lot more missions just to pay my rent! Ugh!"

Levy felt sorry for her friend and hugged her to calm her down. The girl had been so stressed these last days and Natsu and Happy were not helping at all.

"I'll go on the next mission with you, girl. Just you and me. No Happy. No Natsu. Just two best friends."

Lucy gave the small girl a smile and hugged her back.

"Thank you! You are the best!"

"Rest assure that Shrimp won't give you trouble like that Natsu Jerk." Gajeel said, grinning.

"Who are you calling a shrimp?" Levy protested, pulling back from Lucy's hug to cross her arms and stare at Gajeel in a grumpy way.

"AND WHO ARE YOU CALLING A JERK?!"

The scream startled the three and as soon as Lucy saw the two figures marching on their direction, she just rolled her eyes, grabbed Levy's hand and went away with her. She had had enough of Natsu and Happy for a whole month and knew exactly what was going to happen.

Taking Levy with her, she joined Cana on a corner table to chat, until a fire ball almost hit them, making the three hide under the table.

The guild hall was in an uproar. Things were being thrown everywhere, benches were being broken, the guys were attacking each other, everyone was being hit and in the middle of all the mess, a guy with a long hair stood still, with his arms crossed and his eyes closed, which meant he was starting to get pissed.

The girls looked quickly to the counter where the kids were and were relieved to see that Mira and Erza had let them go, but the blond guy was starting to freak out. Cana was too drunk to care about the mess the guys were doing, so, for safety, Lucy and Levy pulled her down to under a table. That was a lot safer than staying in the middle of the cross fire.

* * *

Meanwhile, Mirajane had put Allen, Lenalee, Lavi and Link on her side of the counter, after she saw the panic in their eyes. She opened her mouth to say something to calm them down, when a barrel came flying towards them. She quickly ducked and pushed them down to protect them from the hit and shouted:

"ELFMAN, BE CAREFUL!"

A big and tough white-haired guy appeared on the middle of the crowd and shouted back:

"SORRY, ONEE-CHAN!"

"Is that guy your younger brother?"Lavi asked looking at that giant man with wide eyes and then back to Mira.

"Yes"

 _Okay. He was not going to hit on her after that. If all that talk about Satan soul wasn't enough._

"Oh My God. They are going to kill each other if things keep going like that! Aren't you going to try and stop them?" Lena asked with wide eyes.

"Nah. Sooner or later Erza is coming back and will kick their asses in place... Or Master will." Mira seeming not even a little bit worried. Lenalee's wide eyes made her chuckle. "Anyway, this happens at least once a week here. Everyone is used to it by now."

"Those girls over there look terrified" Allen pointed out, indicating Lucy, Levy and Cana hiding under a table.

"Those ones? Two of them are just watching their boys fight and I think Cana is just too drunk to care."

"You let underage people drink here?!" Link asked baffled.

Before Mira could answer, a piece of chocolate cake came flying right into Allen's hair, scaring Timcanpy and Lenalee who were by his side.

The hall was immediately immersed in an intense dark aura that made everybody stop. Erza had just got back with Master Makarov and... ' .

She looked at the frozen hall with fire in her eyes and with the most serious tone ever, she said:

"WHO. WAS. THE. LITTLE. SHIT?!"


	3. The Author

**CHAPTER 3**

 ** _The Author's Note_**

After finally releasing Allen and Lenalee, Erza went to see Master Makarov, leaving both of them to be pampered by Mirajane.

The Guild Master's room was on the second floor, behind the last door in the corridor above the counter. Inside the small room the walls were filled with old pictures of the members and also a lot of paintings from Reedus that looked so real that it was almost impossible to differ it from the pictures. There was so many of them in the walls, that Erza could see herself and her friends growing up.

"I assume you wanted to talk about our visitors?" Asked Makarov, behind a never-ending pile of debts in his desk. "I could hear you and Mira coddling them from here."

"We weren't _coddling_ them!" She defended herself. "We were just...appreciating those _cute_ little faces."

"This sounded really creepy, but again… _Coddling._ "

"Well, I brought them here because they wanted to ask you permission to access the guild's archive in their search." Erza said. "They're on a mission to search for an ancient magic relic, and they believe it's hidden in our country."

"Aren't they from Fiore?" Makarov asked interested.

"No… they said they were from very far away and in their home, magic is not as common as it is here, so they are always traveling around. This is their first time here."

"Well… Then I guess we should give them a proper welcoming, right?" Makarov said standing up. "And I believe Levy would love to learn more about foreigner countries with them, so it wouldn't be a problem for her to guide them through our archives."

"Perfect!"

* * *

Back in the Hall, the first thing Erza saw was one of Fairy Tails' daily fight, with objects and spells being thrown among the members and all over the room. Nothing out of ordinary actually. She dodged from a flying barrel and laughed. Oh, how she was missing those fights. With everyone always in mission, it was kind of hard to fights like that arise out of nowhere and she loved seeing her friends kicking their own asses. It was so… Refreshing.

Until she saw Allen, Lenalee and the others hiding behind the bar with Mira, and that piece of cake flying straight to Allen's face.

Ok. Now things had gone too far. NO ONE messed with her angels and got away with that. She was so damn pissed that a dark aura was starting to form around her and the mages felt a shiver down their spines at the feeling of it. Everybody froze in place, some even with barrels and benches on hand yet.

"WHO. WAS. THE. LITTLE. SHIT?!" She shouted.

 _Utter silence._

Lavi was surprised at the turn of events and tried calling his friends' attention to the scene, but gave up after seeing that Allen was too busy licking the cake off his face and fingers while Link scolded him and Lenalee tried not to laugh. Kanda, who was in the middle of a fight with a pink haired mage who he already hated, was looking at something above the stairs, probably the owner of the voice. He seemed curious.

Back to the scene, someone pushed Elfman in front of the room, right on Erza's merciless sight.

With a terrifying calmness, Erza asked:

"Was that you Elfman?"

Kanda and Lavi saw the full grown and muscle man tremble before her.

"Y-yeah. It w-was me." He stuttered, before clearing his throat "But as a man, I'm going to apolo..."

But before he could finish his sentence, Erza jumped over the stairs banister and went on berserk mode, kicking him so hard that the man flyed to the other side of the hall and left his mark on the wall.

"He's your brother, right?" Asked a curious and a little worried Lenalee to Mirajane, while the mages opened space for Erza to pass and finishing kicking the poor man's ass. "Aren't you gonna help him?"

"Nah. He's gonna be ok." She said calmly. "Erza is not going to kill him, I guess. Besides, you heard me warning him to be careful already, didn't you? So It's his own fault."

"Eh…"

Turning to look at Allen this time, Mirajane continued:

"Now, come here Allen, I'll give you something to cle..."

But looking at him properly, she noticed that all the traces of cake were mysteriously gone, so she just shrugged.

At this moment, Master Makarov, already seeing what the whole situation in the hall was going to lead, decided that it was time to act... and maybe show off a lit bit too. It felt good doing it sometimes.

"ENOUGH!" His voice thundered, his giant shadow attracting the attention of everyone in the hall and Erza stopped a punch midway to Elfman's face, while three girls peered above the tables they were hiding under. The master jumped in the middle of the hall, to better see the kids behind the counter. He forgot he was bigger and heavier than Elfman, though and the impact opened a giant hole on the wooden floor. _DAMMIT!_ One more thing to repair. If it weren't enough the seven years of late bills he had to pay. But he still wanted to make a good impression, so he just pretended that thoughts had never crossed his mind. "We have visitors today, and it would be nice to give them a warm welcome, don't you all agree?"

"I was already having a warm and welcoming fight w-" Natsu was interrupted by a chop in the head from Erza.

"Miss Erza is a very… Aggressive woman…" Link whispered to Lavi.

"Just my type!"

Link frowned. Had Lavi heard what he said and seen what the red haired lady had just done? It just could be it. This, or the boy was definitely going nuts.

The giant figure started shrinking down and draw back his attention, making him frown again at the sight of a man the size of a child, with gray hair and beard. The man opened his arms for the visitors still half hidden behind the count with Mirajane, and with a big smile, said:

"Welcome to Fairy Tail!"

* * *

After receiving what the Master had called a proper welcoming, the exorcists and Link were led upstairs, to the Guild Master small room. Allen and Lenalee ended up sitting in the two chairs available, while the other three boys were behind them, Lavi leaning on Allen's chair and Kanda leaning at the door, and Link merely stood behind Lenalee.

"Erza told me you are from a foreign country, and are here looking for an ancient magic relic." Makarov started. "I already decided to allow your access to our Archives for your research, but I'm curious about this item you are looking for."

"The relic we are looking for is part of a special collection of 109." Lavi started explaining. "Our guild specializes in finding and protecting these magical items, since their power could be used for harm."

"Oh, so is possible that there's more than one in Fiore?" Makarov asked.

"We don't know for sure, but some of our members had reported an increase in activity of a certain kind of monster that is attracted by the presence of this relics in the borders of the country during their travels. So we were sent here." Lavi said.

"Even if in the end we don't find any leads in a relic in this country, we will at least kill any of those monsters that come our way." Kanda added.

"Our guild has passed for some serious financial problems in the last years, and in this meantime we lost the old building, but luckily, the master at the time brought all our documents safely here." Makarov said. "I will ask Levy, one of our mages, to guide you amongst all those old things."

"Thank you, Master Makarov." Lenalee said. "Your help is really appreciated."

"Now, let's meet Levy, I'm sure she will be very pleased to work with you."

Kanda, who was silent by the door, had a little trouble hiding a smirk when he saw the way the stupid rabbit started to sweat. This would be priceless.

* * *

"I totally can't stand them anymore!" Lucy said, laying her head on the bar's counter. "Can't they freaking understand that I need to pay a freaking rent?"

"I still don't understand why you're not living in Fairy Hill with us." Said Erza, leaning on the counter and crossing her arms. "Everybody lives there, why don't you too?"

"Are you crazy?" Lucy asked, lifting her head from the counter. "I can't even pay my 700-jewel-rent! Imagine paying 1000 every month!" She sighed. "I'm lucky my dad payed the rent for this last 7 years. I can't even imagine what I would have to do to pay that debt."

"I'm lucky Gajeel just eats every nail he sees." Said Levy, holding the mug of beer she had been sharing with Lucy. "One thing or another may fall, but it's not hard to rebuild. If he destroyed everything like Natsu does, I would totally have killed him already."

"Big words for a shortie, ahn?"

"Oh… Ah… Hm… He-hi Gajeel." She stuttered, surprised by him appearing from out of nowhere and stroke a pose trying to look calm. "H-how have you been?"

"Good, in the last 20 minutes since we last talked."

She bit her lips, covered her cheeks as soon as she started blushing and looked at the other side, embarrassed. Lucy and Erza looked at each other with The Look. And it was that "looking at the other side" thing that made Levy see the red-haired guy on the stairs.

"No way. Are you kidding me?"

The four of them looked at the stairs to see Master Makarov going down the stairs with the guests. Erza made a dumb face when she saw Lenalee and Allen, while Lucy was amazed by Kanda's beauty and Gajeel suppressed a laugh at the disgusted face Levy was making.

* * *

"Haven't I said that I never wanted to look at your face, again?" Said a very pissed Levy, with her arms crossed, looking at a nervous Lavi "What the hell are you doing at my guild?"

Lavi scratched the back of his head and gave her a yellow smile.

Behind Levy, Gajeel looked puzzled, Erza couldn't take her eyes off her kids the same way Lucy couldn't take her eyes off Kanda.

"Sooo… It looks like you met each other before…" Master pointed out. Lena looked at her friend and the shorl girl with a puzzled expression and Allen grinned, curiously.

"And it looks like it wasn't a very pleasant experience." Link whispered to them.

"Master, please don't tell me he is one of our guests."

"He is, indeed."

"Ugh. I hate my life."

"What did you do, Lavi?" Lena asked, curious

"I kinda..." He blushed, smiled awkwardly and rubbed behind his head "Hitted on her."

"He said he was German." Kanda clarified

"Ah. Got it now." Said Lenalee.

"He made me spend the whole freaking day with him, forcing my brain to speak a language I don't master and wasting my time looking for maps in German for him because he said he was freaking lost and that his friends had ditched him for sweets"

"Oh" Exclaimed Master Makarov

"But your german is very good, dear." Lavi said, trying to break the ice or something. Maybe a compliment would help (?). "You are almost fluent. You just need a little-"

"Shut up!"

"Has anyone ever said that this shade of blue in your hair looks really beautiful?" He continued, ignoring the order to shut up.  
"Lavi, I think you should probably st-" Lenalee said, trying to recommend Lavi, but the boy just raised a hand dismissing her.

"Yes, _Hans._ _My boyfriend,_ told me this just this morning." Replied Levy proudly with her chin high, hands on her hips, and a snicker on her lips.

For a moment, everything got silent. The chatting died around them. Levy, one of the cutest and smallest girl in the whole guild, who was really hard to get mad, had just screamed that she had a boyfriend for everyone to hear just because a stranger had pissed her.

The moment of silence was only broken by the sound of Gajeel, choking with a piece of iron he had just swallowed before munching, out of surprise. And then the guild went on an uproar.

"Oh shit, I said it out loud!" Levy said out loud.

Wendy and Lucy gaped in surprise, while Erza smugly passed some money to Lavi as a form of appreciation for making Levy finally spill the beans, especially because Gajeel started to sweat with tension, while Jet and Droy, two mages who were Levy's loyal partners in mission and also had a lifetime crush on her, could only stare at him in shock: _It couldn't be… Of every man in the world she had chose Gajeel Freaking Redfox? She must had been brainwashed, that was the only logical explanation!_

"Well, this is a totally unexpected turn of events." Allen said, after that totally unexpected turn of events.

"No shit, Sherlock!"

Well, at least Kanda was still the same douchebag, Allen always knew.

* * *

The guild's archive was a small and very humid room in the basement, the walls were filled with various worn wooden bookcases. Bookworms and other insects could be seen trying to hide in the corners from the lamp light. Lavi guessed there was some kind of spell to prevent the various books and scrolls kept in there from being devoured by the insects or eroded by the humidity. In the center of the room, there was a small table and some chairs, giving the impression of an improvised and very tiny library hidden under the guild.

"This isn't a very good place to keep _all_ our files stored, so for the time being we are keeping the biggest part in a storehouse in the city." Levy explained. "Only the most recent ones are being kept here, so if you don't find what you are looking for here today, tomorrow I can take you guys to see the others."

"Well, then let's start digging!" Lenalee said before a long silence could take place. "Lavi, Link and Allen can work on the right side while Kanda and I work on the left."

"I will help you." Levy told Lenalee, while glaring directly at Lavi. " I will just ask you to be very careful with them, we put some spells to conserve them and it may cause some itch in your hands." She was secretly hoping Lavi would be a victim of those spells, while Lavi decided he would make an extra effort to be careful with those files, that glare was making him very uncomfortable…

* * *

After spending the whole morning searching through miles and miles of scrolls and books without finding a single clue about Innocence, but numerous about Akuma presence, they had a short lunch in the guild and headed to the train station, so Allen, Link and Kanda could start their part of the mission.

Kanda's train departed less than an hour after they got to the station. He seemed very impatient to depart, so Lenalee guessed he didn't want to spend any more time near the scene Erza, who insisted in coming with them, was creating.

"Are you suuuuuuuuure you can't stay the night in Magnolia?" Asked Erza while bear hugging an almost purple Allen. "There's another train tomorrow morning…"

Sadly, on top of not being able to breath, Allen also couldn't speak. Lavi and Lenalee preferred to act as if they didn't know them while trying not to laugh.

"Miss Erza, he won't be able to talk if you don't stop suffocating him…" Link said, while still trying to free him, but with no success.

After one last squeeze, Erza seemed satisfied and released Allen, who started coughing for air.

"You're okay there, little buddy?" Lavi asked patting his back and trying to hold back his laugh.

"Yea-" Whatever Allen was just about to say, was muted by a loud train whistle.

"It's our train!" Link warned.

Before Erza could trap him in another deadly goodbye hug, Allen grabbed his suitcase and Timcanpy and runned to the train.

"Good luck with the books!" He managed to say before disappearing inside.

Erza waited for him to show on one of the train windows, but he never showed up, so she pouted and then sighed before leading Lavi and Lenalee back to the guild.

"I thought I was going to die…"Allen confessed to Timcanpy inside the train, peering through the corner of his window to the Erza's back. The golem had watched the whole scene from the safety of Lenalee's head. "She is so strong…"

* * *

After departing from their friends, Lenalee and Lavi went back to the guild with Erza. They had planned to spend the rest of that evening reading the remaining material in the Archive. With the help of some magical glasses Levy had offered them and the three extra people in the morning, they had covered more than half the room, leaving only the most recent files and books to be read. Honestly, after only finding files barely mentioning Akuma presence in the borders, they weren't holding any hope of finding Innocence in Fiore.

 _Maybe it's for the best._ Lenalee thought, none of them had had any time to rest before this mission, having already come back from previous long ones, Lenalee knew that Komui always tried to not give too much work for them like that, but lately a large increase in Akuma Activity was happening, and he wasn't actually in the position to choose, so as an Exorcist, she and her friends had to deal with it.

"Well, there's less than two hours till the sunset." Levy announced, she had stayed with them in the Archive, making Lavi very nervous in the first place, but now they had settle with only ignoring completely the other existence. " This place is already way too dark in the daylight, so I suggest we stop here."

"Lavi and I are almost finishing anyway, and I guess some rest would be very welcome too." Lenalee commented.

"Then it's settled, tomorrow I can take you guys to see the older files."

Levy placed the book she had finished reading back in a shelf, and stood up to leave, but before Lenalee could do the same, Lavi stumbled upon a small pile of books they had deemed useless, causing them to all fall on the ground.

"Sorry."

But when Lavi was picking up the last book, Lenalee noticed a small piece of paper slipping through one of its pages.

"What's that?" She asked.

"Seems like an Author's Note…" He said, upon a better examination of the paper. "An also it's our clue, Lena-Lady!"

"Whaaaaat?"

Lavi quickly got the book that the paper had slipped from back, and after a simple check, found what he was looking for.

"Well, I had thought this was just one more boring Animal or Monster Catalog made in some extra weird forest." He said, showing her a thick blue book. "But turns out, the author later on found that a _strange magical green stone_ could be the source of the mutations in some of the animals, present there, and he even made us the favour of leaving the location of the stone and all."

"You think this could be the Magical Artifact you are looking for?" Levy asked, forgetting she was ignoring him.

"It's a 50-50 chance, but its not like we have another lead to look on, so I guess it's worth the try." He offered the book to Lenalee. "Besides, the forest that he mentions its in Allen's path, so we could just contact him."

"Do you have any more material about this particular forest in here?" Lenalee asked Levy.

"In the Guild's Archive no..." She said pensative. "But I think one friend of mine might have some helpful material for you. I could bring it to you tomorrow."

"Perfect!" Lenalee said, now they were finally getting somewhere here." We will go back to the inn and contact Allen now! Thanks for you help, Miss Levy!"

"Oh, it's nothing. Don't mention it."

"Ah… I can't wait to just finally sleep…" Lavi commented, relieved.


End file.
